Today the Fermanagh Herald launch a major marketing campaign valued at £30,000 aimed at boosting community awareness of the need to support our local businesses, towns and villages from Belleek to Newtownbutler and Tempo to Kesh.
Over the next 12 weeks we will heavily promote the #TogtherWeAreStronger message across our newspapers, web & social media platforms, e-newsletters and digital editions. We will back this up with positive editorial, photos and reader engagement. The more exposure the campaign receives the better the potential rewards for our communities. As a local business, the Fermanagh Herald are passionate about the communities we live and work in. We have been and continue to be at the forefront of promoting local groups, businesses and campaigns.
Over the years we have used our various print, web and social channels to champion our local traders and providers, through our long-established ‘Shop Local’ and ‘Spend Christmas at Home’ initiatives. We have engaged with our local traders, listened and acted; they have asked us to join with them again to get their message to you – their communities – to ensure we keep our local ‘independents’ open for business.
Maurice Kennedy, Fermanagh Herald editor said; ‘As a long standing part of the local community the Fermanagh Herald recognise our position and duty to actively promote and encourage support and loyalty to our local businesses. Supporting those enterprises helps our local community, our local economy and saves jobs and services. We feel now more than ever it is our responsibility to highlight all of the great things Fermanagh has to offer and I am delighted the Fermanagh Herald are driving this extensive marketing campaign to boost awareness.’
Many of our local independent retailers and service providers have been on
the frontline ensuring we have access to our essential everyday needs. It is these same local businesses which are now asking for your continued support as we face yet more uncertainty. How we shop and get our everyday essentials has certainly changed in 2020, but it’s worth remembering that our local businesses are not only the places where we go to clothe and feed ourselves, where we get our health and well-being needs, where we go to ensure we keep moving forward in our daily lives. Our ‘independents’ are central to our communities – they employ our sons, our daughters, brothers and sisters and ensure that our local economies continue to prosper. Smaller
businesses provide higher levels of service, advice and local knowledge.
Statistics have shown that 63p of every £1 spent with independent traders and service providers is circulated back into our local economy, ensuring continuous prosperity, employment and confidence. By using larger multi-national companies, that figure reduces to 5%, or 5p for every £1 spent*.
To say that this year has been a challenge is perhaps too much of an understatement. Uncertainty in all walks of life, of mixed messages and false starts, our communities have risen to the challenge and come together to support friends and neighbours and to help maintain a level of normality. We truly believe we can make this work if we work together.
Look out for the #TogetherWeAreStronger message, share it on your social media, promote it to your customers, tell your friends, but ultimately remember every time you shop, aim to make it local.
*Centre for Local Economic Strategies
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